He has forged partnerships with Fiat Chrysler and is in talks with Honda to build self-driving cars. Some question whether Mr. Krafcik has figured out how to maneuver the levers of power within the large tech company. “He needs to be a futurist, a technologist, a salesman, a counter-regulator, a hacker, a financier,” said one Google car alum. Automotive executives were dismissive of the engineers Google recruited from self-driving car competitions held by the Department of Defense. Mr. Krafcik then developed a deal with Avis Budget Group to maintain the growing fleet.

Source: Wall Street Journal September 11, 2017 20:54 UTC